Category Archives: Microsoft

Messaging and Collaboration, Sharepoint.. etc

1- IN-PLACE UPGRADE FROM LYNC 2013 TO SKYPE FOR BUSINESS STEP BY STEP GUIDE

November 28, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

This article guides you through the steps of doing an in-place upgrade from Lync 2013 to Skype for business. I am copying the article as is from my lab with all the errors that I have been through to give you a real experience feed back of what is this like.

You might get issues that you have never expected, but resolving them is not that hard and if you have any issues please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I will get back to help you.

Prerequisites

Extensible Chat Communication Over SIP protocol (XCCOS)

From <https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn951390.aspx>

References:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn951371.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn933900.aspx

Lync CU 5

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36820

Kb2533623 Windows Server 2008 R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2533623

Kb2858668 Windows Server 2012

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2858668

KB2982006 Windows Server 2012 R2

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=82488EABA4ACDB15!38654&authkey=!AE9IJKbMPtkge8U&ithint=file%2cexe

SQL 2012 SP2 for Express version

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=43351

Prerequisite not satisfied: Internet Information Services (IIS) must be installed before attempting to install this product.

Prerequisite not satisfied: The following Internet Information Services (IIS) role services must be installed before attempting to install this product: Static Content, Default Document, HTTP Errors, ASP.NET, .NET Extensibility, Internet Server API (ISAPI) Extensions, ISAPI Filters, HTTP Logging, Logging Tools, Tracing, Client Certificate Mapping Authentication, Windows Authentication, Request Filtering, Static Content Compression, Dynamic Content Compression, IIS Management Console, IIS Management Scripts and Tools

Prerequisite not satisfied: Before you install Skype for Business Server 2015, you must install an update for Windows Server 2012 R2. For details about the update, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2982006, “IIS crashes occasionally when a request is sent to a default document in Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2” at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=519376

Prerequisite not satisfied: Before you install Skype for Business Server 2015, you must install Microsoft ASP.NET 4.5 by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard in Windows Server 2012 Server Manager. Install the ASP.NET 4.5 role service of the Web Server (IIS) role.

Prerequisite not satisfied: Before you install Skype for Business Server 2015, you must install Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation Activation by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard in Windows Server 2012 Server Manager. Install WCF Services and HTTP Activation, which are included with the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 feature.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=519376

Powershell

$PSVersionTable

STEP 1 : Installing Prerequisites

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core, RSAT-ADDS, Windows-Identity-Foundation, Web-Server, Web-Static-Content, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Net-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Log-Libraries, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Filtering, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Dyn-Compression, NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Mgmt-Tools, Web-Scripting-Tools, Web-Mgmt-Compat, Server-Media-Foundation, BITS, Desktop-Experience, Telnet-Client

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/plan-your-deployment/requirements-for-your-environment/server-requirements

Updated aug-2018

STEP 2: Installing CU5

Download and install CU5

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36820

After the restart we will apply the update of the databases which in my case is going to be the FQDN of the FE server since it’s standard version and not Backend server.

Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn lyncfe01.adeo.local -Verbose

Time to upgrade the Archiving/Monitoring databases.

To upgrade we’ll use the same command except change the FQDN of the SQL server to the SQL server where Monitoring and Archiving databases are at.

Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn sql01.adeo.local -Verbose

Applying CMS upgrade

Install-CsDatabase -CentralmanagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn Lyncfe01.adeo.local -SqlInstanceName rtc -verbose

Then run enable-cstopology

Last thing in the CU5 update is

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\Deployment\Bootstrapper.exe

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2809243

Step 3 : Installing Windows OS hotfix.

KB2982006 Windows Server 2012 R2

Since the FE is on Windows Server 2012 R2 then we’ll need to download this link

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=82488EABA4ACDB15!38654&authkey=!AE9IJKbMPtkge8U&ithint=file%2cexe

RESTART is Required

STEP 4 : Install SQL Service Pack 2 (Express) for your Lync Front end Standard Edition

First Download SQL Express SP2 setup

You can patch the server by opening a Lync Management Shell window and entering the following commands:

1- Stop-CsWindowsService

2- .\SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe /ACTION=Patch /allinstances /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms

Step 5: SQL Server (Standard or Enterprise) for (Monitoring, Archiving)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/321185

My SQL Server version is SP1 so I don’t need to upgrade it to SP2

Step 6- In-place Upgrade for Skype For Business

In order to do the in-place upgrade, we’ll need to use a machine that doesn’t have Lync 2013 to install the new Topology builder and do the upgrade process

On a different Machine that’s joined to the same domain, I will run the prerequisites script and restart the machine. then I’ll load the Skype for business ISO and install

D:\Setup\amd64\Setup.exe

We’ll now press on Installing Administrative tools

Now in order to continue we’ll have to open the topology builder in order to upgrade our Lync 2013 topology

I’ll open the topology builder and save the topology file somewhere

Once the topology is open, I’ll navigate to the Standard FE Servers and right click on my main server to upgrade

I’ll click on Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015…

As soon as you press Yes, the Frontend server that you selected will be moved under the Skype For Business Server 2015 tab as you can see below.

Since I have two FE servers (FE and SBS) I will be upgrading them both but not in the same time not not fall into any errors, so I will publish the topology and see what happens.

We’ll check what do we need to do now in order to upgrade the servers, here is what we’ll do.

Import existing normalization rules from the previous Skype for Business Server deployment. If you want to keep your existing normalization rules you will need to import them using the Import-CsCompanyPhoneNormalizationRules cmdlet. If you have separate normalization rules for each pool then you will need to run the command for each set.

To perform an in-place upgrade of your Skype for Business Server, you’ll need to do the following, in order:

(1) Stop the Skype for Business services on all of the servers that you are upgrading;

(2) Run Skype for Business Server setup (Setup.exe) on all of the servers you are upgrading;

(3) Start the Skype for Business services on all of the servers you upgraded. To start the services in a Front End pool, connect to one of the servers in the pool and run the Start-CsPool cmdlet. All the servers in the pool should be running Skype for Business Server before you use the Start-CsPool cmdlet. To start the services in all other pools (e.g. Edge pool, Mediation pool), run the Start-CsWindowsService cmdlet on every server in the pool;

Server FQDN: lyncfe01.adeo.local, Pool FQDN: lyncfe01.adeo.local

On Lync FE 01 I’ll stop all the services using Stop-cswindowsservice

Now on the same server I’ll load the Skype4B ISO and start the setup

D:\Setup\amd64\Setup.exe

Started at 1:40pm

NOTE:

The required time for the upgrade process is estimated around 75-90 Minutes for each FE Server.

Starting ‘Verifying upgrade readiness…’

‘Verifying upgrade readiness…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing missing prerequisites…’

‘Installing missing prerequisites…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Uninstalling roles…’

‘Uninstalling roles…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Detaching database…’

‘Detaching database…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Uninstalling local management services…’

‘Uninstalling local management services…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing and configuring core components…’

‘Installing and configuring core components…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing administrative tools…’

‘Installing administrative tools…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing local management services…’

‘Installing local management services…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Attaching database…’

‘Attaching database…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Upgrading database…’

‘Upgrading database…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Enabling replica…’

‘Enabling replica…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing roles…’

‘Installing roles…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Verifying installation…’

‘Verifying installation…’ completed successfully

Upgrade the SBS (Survivable Branch Server) in the pool to Skype4B

Publish the topology

I’ll stop the service before I start the upgrade process.

I’ll load the ISO on the second server and start the upgrade.

D:\Setup\amd64\Setup.exe

Apparently I forgot to update Lync to the latest CU

Exchange 2016, Microsoft, Skype for Business

3- Unified messaging Integration between Exchange 2016 and Skype for Business

November 27, 2019 moh10ly 2 Comments

Setting up UM

To setup UM between Exchange and Skype for business server, the most important step is how you configure the Certificates between both servers in order for them to trust each other.

For that you don’t have to use a public Certificate but rather an internal CA certificate that has its root certificate installed on all of the server where you intend to deploy the UM. (Exchange, S4B Servers..etc.).

To claim this certificate, the easiest step would be to get the CSR from Skype for Business’s Deployment Wizard

Run Deployment Wizard and click on the “Install or Update skype for business Server system”

Then click on step 3 (request, install or assign Cert)

I already have certificate deployed for S4B service but I’ll request CSR again to get one trusted certificate for both Exchange and S4B.

I will tick only the services that matters as in the below screenshot (Server default and Web services internal) later also will be used for OWA integration with UM.

Click on Request

Click on Advanced

I’ll continue next until I’ve got to the important part which is “Name and Security settings” I’ll need to tick the “Mark the certificate’s private key as exportable” since we’ll export the certificate to Exchange servers

Next I’ll add Exchange servers’s FQDNs.

Click Next

Here is the CMDLET

Request-CSCertificate -New -Type Default,WebServicesInternal -CA “DC2016.moh10ly.com\moh10ly-DC2016-CA” -Country “TR” -FriendlyName “Skype for Business Server 2015 Default certificate 3/18/2016” -KeySize 2048 -PrivateKeyExportable $True -Organization “moh10ly” -OU “moh10ly” -DomainName “sip.moh10ly.com,ex2016.moh10ly.com,ex2016-2.moh10ly.com,ex2010.moh10ly.com” -AllSipDomain -Verbose -Report “C:\Users\administrator.MOH10LY\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Request-CSCertificate-[2016_03_18][11_16_35].html”

Click Next again and mark the thumbprint for the new Cert as we’ll need to see it later to make sure it’s properly configured for the UM on Exchange.

8BA9A2C4CD926B01C029F6B9A76D75BBEFDDE069

Click next to assign the Cert

Successfully, the certificate has been assigned to the Services

The CMDLET that was applied

Set-CSCertificate -Type Default,WebServicesInternal -Thumbprint 8BA9A2C4CD926B01C029F6B9A76D75BBEFDDE069 -Confirm:$false -Report “C:\Users\administrator.MOH10LY\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Set-CSCertificate-[2016_03_18][11_19_06].html”

Now it’s time to export this certificate and import it to Exchange servers

I’ll find the certificate that I have created today by looking at the expiration date which is 2 years from now with the same day.

Now I’ll right click on the certificate and export it with the private key.

I’ll open Exchange EMC and import the certificate

I’ll have to put the exported cert in a shared folder and provide the path and the password for it

I’ll add the two servers below

I’ll double click on the imported certificate and assign the UM services to it on each of the servers

I have got the below error due to not configuring the service to use TLS instead of TCP on both servers.

To fix this I’ll go on Exchange Management shell and run the following CMDLET

Get-UMService | Set-UMService -UMStartupMode TLS

Now I’ll try to save again

I’ll proceed with YES and continue to do the same to the other Server and restart the UM service on both servers

Now it’s time to create a UM Dial plan

I’ll configure the UM Dial plan according to my Skype for Business settings for users enabled for EV

To use powershell, you can use the following cmdlet

New-UMDialPlan –Name DialplanName –UriType SIPURI –NumberOfDigitsInExtension 4 –VoIPSecurity Secured –CountryOrRegionCode 1 –AccessTelephoneNumber +9012345678

Next, adding a gateway to the UM (NOTE: If configured incorrect, will cause the service not to start and errors with event ID (1057, 4999,1430, 1038) will appear.

Time to configure Gateway

In the gateway I’ll add my PBX (AsteriskNow) and place my already configured UMDP

When you create the dial plan, Exchange automatically creates a new UM mail policy along with it and it also generates a name that’s related to the Dial plan

In order to see this policy, you will have to double click on the new dial plan to view it and you can also change the policy in it .. Which I’m going to apply for the length of the policy to make it shorter

Double click on the Mailbox policy and navigate to Pin Polices and change it to the length you want to allow

Configure Auto Attendant

Set the AA as how you want it to be configured and make sure you add the full E.164 format as it won’t accept otherwise.

Click Save to continue

Now time to configure OVA (Outlook voice access)

Subscriber Access

If you want to configure Outlook Voice Access (OVA) , sometimes also referred to as Subscriber Access, click on the Configure button. Select Outlook Voice Access in the left hand menu and enter the telephone number you want to use to access OVA. This must be in the E.164 notation.

To do so click on Configure

To assign the new dial plan to the UM services, both on the Client Access Server (UM Call Router) as well as on the Mailbox server. In an Exchange Management Shell windows enter the following commands:

Set-UMCallRouterSettings -DialPlans “Exchangelabs Dial Plan” –Server 2012E15FE04

Get-UMService | Set-UMService -DialPlans “Exchangelabs Dial Plan”

Now I’ll also change the UM call router to TLS and assign Certificate to the service then restart it

Restart the services of the Call router, then associate the service with the dialplan you created.

Set-UMCallRouterSettings -DialPlans “UMDP1” –Server EX2016

Set-UMCallRouterSettings -DialPlans “UMDP1” –Server EX2016-2

Configure Skype for Business Server

To configure the UM Service to be used with Skype for Business Server. Microsoft has a script that will create and configure all necessary components. This scripts is located in the scripts directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Scripts.

Run the following CMDLET

CD $ExScripts

.\ExchUCUtil.ps1

The first time you setup this script it’ll detect the Dial plan and set it up with Skype for Business Server

It will show that no setting has changed but the fact that the dial plan is showing here Not found means that there something has changed .. You’ll notice that if you run the same script again.

Let’s try it again

Here you can see that the dial plan has been assigned to the S4B Front end server.

This script performs the following:

Grants Skype for Business Server permission to read Exchange UM Active Directory components, specifically, the SIP URI dial plan that was created in the first step;
Creates a UM IP gateway for each Skype for business Server pool that hosts users who will be enabled for Enterprise Voice;
Create an Exchange UM hunt group for each UM IP gateway. The hunt group pilot identifier will be the name of the dial plan associated with the corresponding UM IP gateway. The hunt group must specify the UM SIP dial plan used with the UM IP gateway.

When the script has run you’ll see a new UM IP Gateway appear in the EAC. Since this script not only creates the UM IP Gateway but also sets the necessary permissions the UM IP Gateway was not created manually in the first step.

Next we’ll go to Skype for Business FE server and then run the OcsUmUtil.exe tool which creates the contact objects for Outlook Voice Access and for the auto attendants. This tool can be found in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Skype for Business Server 2015\Support

I’ll right click the file to run it as administrator

Click on Load Data

Select the SIP dial plan and click ADD

Click OK

Right after configuring this your Voice mail should be enabled once you enable your user for it

After I enable user for UM and assign a valid dialplan .. Now I can see the user has got his Voice Mail option available.

Hope this was useful

—-

UM gateway

Microsoft, Skype for Business, VoIP

CREATE SKYPE FOR BUSINESS GROUPS

November 26, 2019 moh10ly 2 Comments

If you’re looking for an quick way to let all your users easily add all Skype for Business users to their list after migration from Lync 2010/2013/Skype4business to Office 365 Skype for Business then please follow these steps ..

In order to do so, you will have to have DirSync (Azure AD Sync) installed and functioning properly.

First step: Add a group to AD

On Local AD create a Universal Distribution group as following

Note:

The group must have an e-mail address entered in the Email field otherwise it won’t show up in Lync Client list when you search.

Go to Members tab and add all the users that you are planning to Enable on Skype4Business.

Apply and close the group.

Go to DirSync

Force the Sync

Make sure that group has been Synced.

In office 365. You can check If the group is there or not by simply navigating to the Groups tab on the left pane.

Now Open Lync 2013 or Skype 4 Business client and search for this group by email

Right click the group and click Add to contacts

As soon as you add the group, all the members will come beneath it right away.

Linux, Microsoft, Powershell, Windows 10

Windows 10 powershell’s Linux sudo apt-get install like CMDlet with Chocolately app

November 26, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

The Story

Windows 10 has arrived finally and with it came lot of new features, and one of my favorite new features is that you can finally install applications through powershell just like Linux OS’s terminal window command (apt-get install).

Although the command is still pretty new and lack many repositories where you can find and install applications from.

There’s already some people who are working on adding sources of applications which you can test initially before Microsoft asks product companies to start making their own repositories so Powershell can trust these sites and applications.

One of the sites that are working on providing Windows 10 with repositories is https://chocolatey.org/ which provides hundreds of softwares that can be installed through PS.

To install Chocolately repository simply do the following

Open powershell as an administrator and paste the following cmdlet

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command “iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString(‘https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1’))” && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

Then this

iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString(‘https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1’))

From

https://chocolatey.org/

As soon as you have installed chocolately, you will get a new huge list of applications that can be installed with a very simple and short cmdlet as in the below screenshots.

The good things about these cmdlets is it can be used to deploy an app for a huge number of clients by simply running the script through GPO or batch file.

I am going to install VLC and Google drive on my computer using these cmdlet …

Find-Package

Find-package -Name VLC

Install-package

Checking if the app is really installed or not?

——————————————

Find and install google drive package

Downloading

Installing

If an application doesn’t install, how to troubleshoot it?

If for instance you were trying to install a package or app and that doesn’t work or get stuck then you can navigate to the Chocolately directory and delete any package that you tried to install but were suspended for any reason.

c:\Chocolately\lib\

You can simply delete the whole directory or the file that ends with extension .nupkg and try again to install…

Active Directory, DFS, Microsoft, Windows Server

Migrating DFS from 2000 Mode to 2008 step by step

November 26, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

The Story

Few months ago I have got a request from one of my clients regarding migrating DFS from 2012R2 to 2016.

2012R2 was migrated from 2008r2 and was based on 2000 Mode. To do this you’ve got a list of requirements as it can be migrated but certain features won’t be supported if you continue to use the 2000 Mode in DFS on Windows 2016 server.

How to Start

In this tutorial I will explain how to do this migration by doing a demo step by step and guide you through this Migration with screenshots and the required commands.

I have added a tiny comparison also to make it clear why are we going to use this particular method of migrating DFS mode and Server.

To migrate a domain-based namespace to Windows Server 2008 mode

Open a Command Prompt window and type the following command to export the namespace to a file, where \\ domain \ namespace is the name of the appropriate domain and namespace and path\filename is the path and file name of the export file:

On the source DC/DFS Server

Dfsutil root export \\domain\namespace C:\filename.xml

Write down the path (\\ server \ share ) for each namespace server. You must manually add namespace servers to the recreated namespace because Dfsutil cannot import namespace servers.

In DFS Management, right-click the namespace and then click Delete , or type the following command at a command prompt, where \\ domain \ namespace is the name of the appropriate domain and namespace:
Copy
Dfsutil root remove \\domain\namespace

Let’s go refresh the console and see if it’s deleted there

Next remove

I will remove the rest of the name spaces

All have been removed, Now lets remove the name spaces from the display and observe what happens to the replication groups

NOTE:

Replication groups didn’t get affected

In DFS Management, recreate the namespace with the same name, but use the Windows Server 2008 mode, or type the following command at a command prompt, where \\ server \ namespace is the name of the appropriate server and share for the namespace root:
Dfsutil root adddom \\server\namespace v2

I will use the UI instead of the command

Although we raised the forest and domain function forest but still the 2008 is still greyed out. Lets try to restart the DFS services on the FSMO server

After restarting

Next, I will copy all the xml files to the new server and import them there

My new server is 2016

To import the namespace from the export file, type the following command at a command prompt, where \\ domain \ namespace is the name of the appropriate domain and namespace and path\filename is the path and file name of the file to import:
Dfsutil root import merge path\filename.xml \\domain\namespace

After the Import

I will continue to import the rest of the namespaces

First we need to create them with their matching namespaces from the GUI

Now I will import and merge the xml file

After adding the NEW folder which has replicating group existing already from the previous mode. First it didn’t show up

but after navigating to the NewFolder and clicking on Replication tab then Navigate to the replication group showed the replication group underneath the Replication

What has changed?

The only noticeable thing which has changed is the NameSpace Servers everything else like ( Folder targets still the same, replication is identical to previous settings)

See this screenshot

Let’s check the access to the new namespace

Finally, Let’s import the latest namespace and its configuration (PublicFolder)

Let’s check the result on GUI

Notice the replication group for the PF didn’t come, so let’s do as we have explained before to show the replication group

Here we go

Right after this process finishes, the command creates some kind of a report with time, importing status and other related settings such as site cost, timeout.. Etc

Note

To minimize the time that is required to import a large namespace, run the Dfsutil root import command locally on a namespace server.

Add any remaining namespace servers to the recreated namespace by right-clicking the namespace in DFS Management and then clicking Add Namespace Server , or by typing the following command at a command prompt, where \\ server \ share is the name of the appropriate server and share for the namespace root:
Copy
Dfsutil target add \\server\share

Note

You can add namespace servers before importing the namespace, but doing so causes the namespace servers to incrementally download the metadata for the namespace instead of immediately downloading the entire namespace after being added as a namespace server.

Ref:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc753875(v=ws.11)

Lync, Microsoft, Skype for Business

LYNC 2013 TO SKYPE FOR BUSINESS IN-PLACE UPGRADE WITH MONITORING DATABASE

November 22, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

You might get issues that you have never expected, but resolving them is not that hard and if you have any issues please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I will get back to help you.

Prerequisites

Extensible Chat Communication Over SIP protocol (XCCOS)

From <https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn951390.aspx>

References:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn951371.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn933900.aspx

Lync CU 5

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36820

Kb2533623 Windows Server 2008 R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2533623

Kb2858668 Windows Server 2012

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2858668

KB2982006 Windows Server 2012 R2

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=82488EABA4ACDB15!38654&authkey=!AE9IJKbMPtkge8U&ithint=file%2cexe

SQL 2012 SP2 for Express version

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=43351

First Issue:

Upon running the setup I have got the following error:

Prerequisite not satisfied: Internet Information Services (IIS) must be installed before attempting to install this product.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=519376

Powershell

$PSVersionTable

I will re-run prerequisites to make sure that all are satisfied before running setup again.

STEP 1 : Installing Prerequisites for this In-Place Upgrade

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/plan-your-deployment/requirements-for-your-environment/server-requirements

Updated aug-2018

STEP 2: Installing CU5

Download and install CU5

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36820

After the restart we will apply the update of the databases which in my case is going to be the FQDN of the FE server since it’s standard version and not Backend server.

Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn lyncfe01.adeo.local -Verbose

Time to upgrade the Archiving/Monitoring databases.

To upgrade we’ll use the same command except change the FQDN of the SQL server to the SQL server where Monitoring and Archiving databases are at.

Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn sql01.adeo.local -Verbose

Applying CMS upgrade

Install-CsDatabase -CentralmanagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn Lyncfe01.adeo.local -SqlInstanceName rtc -verbose

Then run enable-cstopology

Last thing in the CU5 update is

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\Deployment\Bootstrapper.exe

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2809243

Step 3 : Installing Windows OS hotfix.

KB2982006 Windows Server 2012 R2

Since the FE is on Windows Server 2012 R2 then we’ll need to download this link

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=82488EABA4ACDB15!38654&authkey=!AE9IJKbMPtkge8U&ithint=file%2cexe

RESTART is Required

STEP 4 : Install SQL Service Pack 2 (Express) for your Lync Front end Standard Edition

First Download SQL Express SP2 setup

You can patch the server by opening a Lync Management Shell window and entering the following commands:

Stop-CsWindowsService

.\SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe /ACTION=Patch /allinstances /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms

Step 5: SQL Server (Standard or Enterprise) for (Monitoring, Archiving)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/321185

My SQL Server version is SP1 so I don’t need to upgrade it to SP2

Step 6- In-place Upgrade for Skype For Business

In order to do the in-place upgrade, we’ll need to use a machine that doesn’t have Lync 2013 to install the new Topology builder and do the upgrade process

On a different Machine that’s joined to the same domain, I will run the prerequisites script and restart the machine. then I’ll load the Skype for business ISO and install

D:\Setup\amd64\Setup.exe

We’ll now press on Installing Administrative tools

Now in order to continue we’ll have to open the topology builder in order to upgrade our Lync 2013 topology

I’ll open the topology builder and save the topology file somewhere

Once the topology is open, I’ll navigate to the Standard FE Servers and right click on my main server to upgrade

I’ll click on Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015…

As soon as you press Yes, the Frontend server that you selected will be moved under the Skype For Business Server 2015 tab as you can see below.

Since I have two FE servers (FE and SBS) I will be upgrading them both but not in the same time not not fall into any errors, so I will publish the topology and see what happens.

We’ll check what do we need to do now in order to upgrade the servers, here is what we’ll do.

To perform an in-place upgrade of your Skype for Business Server, you’ll need to do the following, in order:

(1) Stop the Skype for Business services on all of the servers that you are upgrading;

(2) Run Skype for Business Server setup (Setup.exe) on all of the servers you are upgrading;

(3) Start the Skype for Business services on all of the servers you upgraded. To start the services in a Front End pool, connect to one of the servers in the pool and run the Start-CsPool cmdlet. All the servers in the pool should be running Skype for Business Server before you use the Start-CsPool cmdlet. To start the services in all other pools (e.g. Edge pool, Mediation pool), run the Start-CsWindowsService cmdlet on every server in the pool;

Server FQDN: lyncfe01.adeo.local, Pool FQDN: lyncfe01.adeo.local

On Lync FE 01 I’ll stop all the services using Stop-cswindowsservice

Now on the same server I’ll load the Skype4B ISO and start the setup

D:\Setup\amd64\Setup.exe

Started at 1:40pm

NOTE:

The required time for the upgrade process is estimated around 75-90 Minutes for each FE Server.

Starting ‘Verifying upgrade readiness…’

‘Verifying upgrade readiness…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing missing prerequisites…’

‘Installing missing prerequisites…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Uninstalling roles…’

‘Uninstalling roles…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Detaching database…’

‘Detaching database…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Uninstalling local management services…’

‘Uninstalling local management services…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing and configuring core components…’

‘Installing and configuring core components…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing administrative tools…’

‘Installing administrative tools…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing local management services…’

‘Installing local management services…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Attaching database…’

‘Attaching database…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Upgrading database…’

‘Upgrading database…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Enabling replica…’

‘Enabling replica…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Installing roles…’

‘Installing roles…’ completed successfully

Starting ‘Verifying installation…’

‘Verifying installation…’ completed successfully

Upgrade the SBS (Survivable Branch Server) in the pool to Skype4B

Publish the topology

I’ll stop the service before I start the upgrade process.

I’ll load the ISO on the second server and start the upgrade.

D:\Setup\amd64\Setup.exe

Apparently I forgot to update Lync to the latest CU

Microsoft

Exchange RPC over HTTP problem with TMG

November 22, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

Issue:

When you try to setup your Outlook with Exchange account, you get the below issue.

Note:

In this scenario I’m using windows signed certificate for exchange but I have the CA installed on Client side.
Client is not joined to the domain.
Client is not on VPN.

Symptoms:

Outlook 2010/2013 keeps prompting you for credentials even though you entered them correctly several times.

And when cancelling you receive that “The action couldn’t be completed. The connection to Exchange is unavailable”.

Investigation:

Let’s test our autodiscover and see what’s wrong.

I will first go to www.testexchangeconnectivity.com and test the autodiscover

Now testing Autodiscover have resulted positively.

There’s no need to test RPC over HTTP when using a windows/self-signed certificate as it won’t result positive anyway

Next let’s check TMG’s configuration.

Every rule that involves RPC should be checked in order to make sure that your Publishing configuration is correct.

RPC Server should be pointing internally to your Exchange server and externally to your mail.domain.com External IP Address.

Although when you use TMG’s wizard to publish Exchange TMG does everything for you but still you need to check if it’s the right configuration.

This is my autodiscover rule configuration’s paths and RPC is also included there.

Testing rule seems to result positive for all the published paths.

Let’s try testing the following link and see if it authenticate. The RPCproxy is required for outlook clients to be configured properly

Outlook client tries to connect to the below link after finding the autodiscover settings

https://autodiscover.demotesas.com/rpc/rpcproxy.dll

If you type your credentials, it most likely won’t connect and will keep prompting or will probably say that request is invalid!

Resolution:

What if we changed the RPC path from autodiscover to mail.demotesas.com? The authentication method might be the problem in this case as I am using a total different authentication methods for the mail and for autodiscover rules.

Once we publish the rule, we will have to check the result of the following link

https://mail.demotesas.com/rpc/rpcproxy.dll

The site will mostly be accessed without any issues.

Now we can test our Outlook client setup and see if it will go well without any issues!

The problem was related to the RPCproxy.dll was not being set on the right rule and on the appropriate domain.

It should be on the mail.domain.com with the same authentication delegation.

Active Directory, Pfsense

Pfsense and Active Directory Integration

November 22, 2019 moh10ly 2 Comments

In this tutorial. I will integrate my Active directory with Pfsense in order to authenticate Users from Active directory instead of using Pfsense’s User manager.

The process will give you more options and will make managing users much easier. so in order to do that follow the following steps.

First open your Pfsense Web UI and click on System – > user manager

Next go to Servers Tab

Click + in the right corner

After you click on the + icon you will get the following page.

Fill these details accordingly, for help on how to fill these in check the below snapshot

Note: Make sure that your password is simple and contains only letters, no numbers or special characters e.g. Pfsense

When done click on Select and the result will be that you will be able to view the following OU/CN.

Now create a group on AD e.g. “PF” and create the same identical group name on Pfsense. On AD add any user to this group.

Then go back to pfsense – > system – > user manager -> goto Settings Tab – > from Authentication server select your AD and save

Now click on Diagnostic -> Authentication -> select your AD server

Type in your username and password for the user which you have added to the group pf in the AD and click test then you will see the result on top. “User: Pfsense authenticated successfully. this user is a member of these groups: pf

Hope this will help you find your way through Pfsense. 🙂

Exchange 2013, Microsoft Exchange

Upgrading Exchange 2013 RTM to Latest SP and CU

November 21, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

To check for the current version use the following command line

Version 15.0 (Build 516.32)

Get-Exchangeserver | ft Name,Admin* -Autosize

How to upgrade your existing Exchange Server 2013 to CU7 using command-line

You will have to download CU7 pack, extract it and run the command line from CMD with administrative privileges.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45221

Here we run the CMD as admin

Drag and drop the folder you extracted into CMD window to be able to enter into the path in order to run the setup file.

Run the following command to upgrade the existent server

Setup /Mode:Upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Below you can see the upgrade process to install the Cumulative Update 3.

Once the upgrade process is finished you will be able to see the new version in the cmdlet after you apply the cmdlet

Get-ExchangeServer | ft Name,Admin* -AutoSize

The version must show 15.00.1044.025

Microsoft Exchange

Testing Exchange ActiveSync

November 21, 2019 moh10ly Leave a comment

Testing Active Sync and fixing access issue on Exchange 2013

If you have an issue with ActiveSync on Exchange 2010/2013 and you want to troubleshoot it, First test ActiveSync from Microsoft Exchange Management shell.

You can use the following cmdlet to start

Test-ActiveSyncConnectivity -MailboxCredential (Get-Credential domain\user) -UseAutodiscoverForClientAccessServer

As you can see in the previous snapshot, the test failed in folder syncing part. But in order to get the full report on the failure we’ll have to add the option | fl and if you want to export the report to a text file you can use the parameter >c:\1.txt which will export the command output to a text file name called 1.txt on the C root drive.

Resolution:

As you can see the eror says “Internal server error” and if you proceed to read the error in the middle it says “Active Directory operation failed on DC.server.local. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Access is denied. Active Directory response: 000000005 up to <INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS>. Searching for this error a little bit I found that it’s related to Inheritance under the user’s security advanced settings.

Once this was applied the user was able to log in from mobile without an issuedel.icio.us Tags: Exchange,ActiveSync,ActiveDirectory,Exchange Mobile.

Prerequisites

References:

Lync CU 5

STEP 1 : Installing Prerequisites

STEP 2: Installing CU5

Applying CMS upgrade

Last thing in the CU5 update is

Step 3 : Installing Windows OS hotfix.

STEP 4 : Install SQL Service Pack 2 (Express) for your Lync Front end Standard Edition

1- Stop-CsWindowsService

2- .\SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe /ACTION=Patch /allinstances /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms

Step 5: SQL Server (Standard or Enterprise) for (Monitoring, Archiving)

Step 6- In-place Upgrade for Skype For Business

To perform an in-place upgrade of your Skype for Business Server, you’ll need to do the following, in order:

(1) Stop the Skype for Business services on all of the servers that you are upgrading;

(2) Run Skype for Business Server setup (Setup.exe) on all of the servers you are upgrading;

Setting up UM

Now time to configure OVA (Outlook voice access)

Configure Skype for Business Server

First step: Add a group to AD

Apply and close the group.

The Story

To install Chocolately repository simply do the following

Then this

Find-Package

Install-package

Find and install google drive package

Installing

If an application doesn’t install, how to troubleshoot it?

The Story

How to Start

To migrate a domain-based namespace to Windows Server 2008 mode

On the source DC/DFS Server

Next remove

NOTE:

I will use the UI instead of the command

My new server is 2016

Note

Note

Prerequisites

References:

Lync CU 5

First Issue:

STEP 1 : Installing Prerequisites for this In-Place Upgrade

STEP 2: Installing CU5

Download and install CU5

STEP 4 : Install SQL Service Pack 2 (Express) for your Lync Front end Standard Edition

Step 5: SQL Server (Standard or Enterprise) for (Monitoring, Archiving)

Next go to Servers Tab

Testing Active Sync and fixing access issue on Exchange 2013

You can use the following cmdlet to start

Resolution:

The Troubleshooting Guy